Smart Practices for Protecting Unaccompanied and Separated Children from SGBV Through Access to Health and PSS in Last Mile Locations: Honduras

Evelyn Vallejo Salcedo - International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies

The objective of the mission was to gather data on Honduras as a case study to support the IFRC global study on smart practices for protecting unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) from sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) through health and psychosocial services in last mile locations.

File

Receptive Vocabulary Development of Children Placed in Foster Care and Children Who Remained With Birth Parents After Involvement With Child Protective Services

Lindsay Zajac, K. Lee Raby, Mary Dozier - Child Maltreatment

This study examined whether children with Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement who were in foster care had more advanced receptive vocabulary than children with CPS involvement who resided with their birth parents.

From Pariahs to Partners: How Parents and their Allies Changed New York City's Child Welfare System

David Tobis

This book focuses on the lives of six mothers who had been pariahs and then became partners with child welfare commissioners, social workers, lawyers, foundation officers, and child welfare agency executives. It recounts how their courage and resilience brought about the most significant changes in the history of New York’s child welfare system.

Adoption Breakdown in Spain: A Survival and Age-Related Analysis

Carmen Paniagua, Jesús Palacios, Jesús M. Jiménez-Morago, Francisco Rivera - Research on Social Work Practice

The two goals of this article from the Special Issue on Adoption Breakdown of the journal of Research on Social Work Practice are the analysis of the duration of adoptive placements ending in breakdown and the role of age at placement in the breakdown experience in Spain.

“We're giving you the sack” - Social Workers’ Perspectives of Intervening in Affluent Families When There are Concerns about Child Neglect

Claudia Bernard - The British Journal of Social Work

Using the findings from a qualitative study, this paper explores social workers’ experiences of intervening in affluent families in the UK when there are child protection concerns.

Study on the Status of Health Service Utilization among 3–5 Years Old Left-Behind Children in Poor Rural Areas of Hunan Province, China: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Yufeng Ouyang, Jiaojiao Zou, Meimei Ji, Yefu Zhang, Tong Yuan, Lina Yang, and Qian Lin - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

This study evaluated the health service needs of left-behind children ages 3-5 years old in Hunan Province, China.

File

Meta‐analysis of the mental health status of left‐behind children in China

Wei Wu, Guangbo Qu, Lingling Wang, Xue Tang, Ye‐Huan Sun - Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health

The aims of this study were to systematically evaluate and comparatively analyse the mental health status of left‐behind children (LBC) in China and to provide a scientific basis for mental intervention and healthy education for LBC.

Conference Proceedings of the 1st International Conference of the Department of Social Work, University Of Nigeria, Nsukka on the Theme “Emerging and Contemporary Social Issues: The Place of Social Work Education and Practice in Nigeria”

Journal of Social Work in Developing Societies & University of Nigeria Department of Social Work

The First International Conference of the Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with the theme “Emerging and Contemporary Social Issues: The place of Social Work Education and Practice in Nigeria” was held 10-13 September 2018 and included 96 oral presentations of papers by delegates from across the country. Several papers focused on illegal adoptions of children in Nigeria and the role of social workers in addressing this practice.

File

Aging Out: 2018 Legislation Seeking to Address Virginia’s Permanency Problem for Children in Foster Care

Valerie L’Herrou - Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article by staff attorney for family law and child welfare at the Virginia Poverty Law Center's Center for Family Advocacy, Valerie L’Herrou, outlines and analyses several new bills introduced by the Virginia General Assembly in 2018 and their impacts on young people aging out of the foster care system and family reintegration.

File

Maternal schizophrenia and out-of-home placements of offspring: a national follow-up study among Finnish women born 1965-1980 and their children

Laura Simoila, Erkki Isometsä, Mika Gissler, Jaana Suvisaari, Eila Sailas, Erja Halmesmäki, Nina Lindberg - Psychiatry Research

This study investigated out-of-home placements in Finland among children with a biological mother having schizophrenia, and their relation to maternal characteristics and adverse perinatal health outcomes of the offspring.

Emotional and Behavioral Problems and Psychosocial Skills in Adolescents in Residential Care

Joana Campos, Maria Barbosa-Ducharne, Pedro Dias, Sónia Rodrigues, Ana Catarina Martins, Mariana Leal - Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal

This study compared adolescents in residential care (RC) in Portugal, with a Portuguese community sample on the incidence of mental health problems and psychosocial skills, explored gender differences and the relationships between mental health problems and psychosocial competencies.

Empowering Residential Carers of Looked After Young People: The Impact of the Emotional Warmth Model of Professional Childcare

Robert John Seán Cameron & Ravi K Das - The British Journal of Social Work

This study examined the impact of the model of professional childcare in a three-year project involving fifty-three children and young people and their carers in local-authority children’s homes on two UK areas (Northern and Southern England).

Re-Thinking Aftercare Beyond Short-Term Residential Facilities

Shankaran Sarita - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond

This paper from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare provides an insight into the lives of two care leavers to understand their experiences in the world outside care. It brings out significant recommendations for reforms in aftercare policies for children leaving care.

Mental and emotional health needs of orphaned and separated youth in New Delhi, India during transition into adulthood

Atluri Namratha, Pogula Mounika, Chandrashekar Riti, Ariely Sumedha Gupta - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond

This study from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare describes the mental health outcomes and transition experiences of a group of young adults who are currently transitioning (aftercare) or have already transitioned (alumni) out of a residential care organisation for orphaned and separated children (OSC) in New Delhi, India.

Young adults transitioning from institutional care to independent living: The role of aftercare support and services

Bhargava Rini, Chandrashekhar Riti, Kansal Shubhangi, Modi Kiran - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond

This study from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare was conducted on 47 young adults who had grown up in various government and non-government child care institutions of New Delhi, India and the aftercare services they did or did not receive. The analysis revealed that the existing aftercare programmes are ill-equipped to prepare Out-of-Home Care (OHC) youth to transition from alternative care to independent living.

Aftercare of children in alternative care: An analysis of the international and national legal framework from the prism of human rights

Khan Saif Rasul - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond

This study from the Institutionalised Children: Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare is aimed at studying the concept of aftercare from the prism of human rights and the international framework in context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN resolution, Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Furthermore, the research is aimed at analysing the legal provisions and standards provided within the Indian legal system and how far it is attuned to the international standards.

Leaving alternative care: Building support systems for young people

Perera W.D.P. - Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond

This article from the Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond Special Issue on Aftercare explores the outcomes for young people who have transitioned out of alternative care and into independent living in Sri Lanka and the need for policy changes to better meet their needs.

Self-control and subjective-wellbeing of adolescents in residential care: The moderator role of experienced happiness and daily-life activities with caregivers

Harry Orúzar, Rafael Miranda, Xavier Oriol, Carme Montserrat - Children and Youth Services Review

The main objective of this study is to explore, from a bottom-up perspective, the moderating effect of an experienced happiness indicator (OHS) and the daily-life activities shared between caregivers and adolescents in the residential care system in Peru.

Identifying and Addressing Risk in the Implementation of Alternative Care Policies in Cambodia

Patricia Fronek, Robert Common, Karen Smith Rotabi, Johnny Statham - Journal of Human Rights and Social Work

This short human rights in action article takes a critical approach to the translation of policy to practice and highlights risks involved with haste, outcomes measured in numbers and unrealistic timeframes, and rapidly transforming practice with nascent investment in a country’s capacity to assess and respond to the real needs of children and families within their communities.

Knowledge translation in child welfare—improving educational outcomes for children at risk: study protocol for a hybrid randomized controlled pragmatic trial

Thomas Engell, Ingvild Barbara Follestad, Anne Andersen, Kristine Amlund Hagen - Trials

The present study is part of a knowledge translation project in collaboration with local CWS with the aim to develop, implement, and evaluate Enhanced Academic Support (EAS) for primary school children in Child Welfare Services (CWS) in Norway.

Unsafe and Uneducated: Indifference to Dangers in Pennsylvania’s Residential Child Welfare Facilities

Elissa Glucksman Hyne, Christina Wilson Remlin, Maura McInerney, Isabel Skilton, Genevieve Caffrey - Children’s Rights

This report is divided into two parts. Part A focuses on the dangers that occur at Pennsylvania’s residential facilities when the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (“PA-DHS”) fails to provide meaningful oversight. Part B provides background on child residents’ educational rights, details the inferior education that children at these residential facilities receive, especially those children with disabilities, and the devastating consequences.

File

The rise of kinship carers

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

‘Monique's early childhood was the sort of experience that might have broken most kids. Now 19, she found a loving home with a relative when she was nine. It's called kinship care, and it's the fastest growing form of care for children who can't live at home.’

Supporting Relative Caregivers in Los Angeles—An Interview with Judge Michael Nash, Ret.

Claire Chiamulera - Child Law Practice Today

In this article from the Child Law Practice Today July/August 2017 Issue on Kinship Care, Los Angeles Judge Michael Nash, Ret. shares court and agency strategies to engage and support relatives for children and families involved in the child welfare system in the US.

Sixth Circuit Case Opens Door to Equal Pay and Support for Relative Caregivers

Heidi Redlich Epstein & Elizabeth Christy - Child Law Practice Today

Providing relative caregivers the same financial benefits and supports as nonrelative foster caregivers is the focus of ongoing US federal litigation described in this article from the Child Law Practice Today July/August 2017 Issue on Kinship Care. The litigation addresses the equitable treatment of relatives who care for children in the child welfare system.

Recruiting and Supporting Kinship Foster Families

Mary Bissell - Child Law Practice Today

This article from the Child Law Practice Today July/August 2017 Issue on Kinship Care describes a national campaign launched by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, with other national stakeholders, to transform foster parenting by changing the way systems and communities partner with foster parents to help children stay safe, heal, and thrive in their own families and communities. The article highlights the considerations identified by kinship foster families as fundamental to feeling supported by child welfare systems and providing the best possible care.